Unlike type 2 diabetes, type 1 is not linked to diet, as it has a both genetic and environmental origin. While the triggering virus has been around for thousands of years, the disease only started creeping up in the first half of the 1900s, and dramatically ros in the 1950s. One reason for this historical increase in the incidence of Type 1 diabetes could be linked to improved sanitation in our developed world.

This is known as Strachan’s idea, or more commonly as the hygiene hypothesis. In 1989, he was the first one to link the rising rates of allergic illnesses in the UK with improvements in living standards since the industrial revolution. He hypothesised that somehow...